552 



ON USEFUL AND 



BOOK I. 



with great propriety. In all ordinary plantations, the plants 

 should be put in irregularly ; and wherever ornament is in the 

 least degree attended to, irregularly irregular; they should be 

 ' grouped, or, to speak in language which a planter will easily 

 comprehend, planted just as if they had grown up by chance 

 from the seed ; or as we see in natural forests, where in some 

 places perhaps two or three trees appear to spring from one 

 root, and in others quite thin and more detached. This pro- 

 duces an endless variety of composition, and at the same time 

 as much timber-produce, as the same would do if planted at 

 regular distances*. 



The different modes of inserting the plants, are, either by pit- 

 ting or slit-planting, which are the best; or by dibbling, which,, 

 however, can seldom be practised with propriety. Planting the 

 pine and fir tribe, I consider as more economical and expedi- 

 tious than sowing; but where extensive forests are to be raised, 

 most of the deciduous trees, and particularly the oak and ash 



* Witness the common mode of thinning fields of young turnips that have not 

 sprung sufficiently thick. Some of the plants may stand at two feet, others not 

 above two inches separate ; but where two are close together, by being unencum- 

 bered all around, they grow more vigorously than the others; and as the bulk 

 swells, push each other asunder ; so that in a short time the whole surface of the 

 field is covered. The same thing takes place in natural woods. Suppose two spaces,, 

 containing twenty square yards each, and in each space two trees ; but in one, the 

 trees to be planted three feet asunder, and the other three yards : when ten years 

 grown, the bulk and height produced on each of the spaces would, be exactly alike,. 



